State of the Art: A Festival Celebrating WA Music

Drapht at State of the Art. Image by Aaron Webber.

The third annual State of the Art Festival held on Saturday 31 May perfectly complemented the WA Day long weekend celebrations. The festival tipped its hat at Perth’s thriving music scene and highlighted the strength and diversity of talent that has emerged from its isolated shores.

The Perth Cultural Centre, which played host to the proceedings, has been transformed in recent years from a stark concrete thoroughfare between the State Library, State Gallery and Museum into a vibrant, creative, interactive space and the obvious choice for this year’s festival.

The festival itself was massive with four main stages featuring 34 local bands, DJs and pop-up performances showcasing over 40 solo and duet acts.

Unfortunately some of the pop-up points, featuring mainly solo acts, were very close to the main stages. The effect was that some performers were drowned out by the bands. This was not ideal for those intent on hearing what they had to offer.

As a result, it seemed most solo performers found that holding a transient audience’s attention was a very difficult task, even with beautiful soaring voices and heartfelt musical murmurs. As one performer on the wetlands stage, Lucy Peach, humbly stated: ‘Wow, sounds like there are lots of great bands you could be seeing right now, so thank you for being here.’

The only respite from this issue was over on the Museum pop-up area where there was sufficient distance from all main stages for performers to be heard.

A spattering of appreciative listeners enjoyed the likes of Catherine Tracios from the grassy knoll in front of the Museum, surrounded by food trucks and the sound of children happily playing in the kinetic sculpture playground. Traicos’s songs have a haunting quality, which are created by the combination of her clear yet ethereal voice and the melodies that weave through her emotive words to create a soothing space within the otherwise whirling, almost chaotic, movement of the festival.

Beyond impermanent fences where artists created spray-can murals, the main stages came to life. Over in the Urban Orchard, among fruit trees and a vibrant green assortment of vegetables in the community garden, Ruby Boots drew a decent crowd for 3:30pm. Front woman, Bex Chilcott, was engaging with her relaxed banter before launching into her particular style of alt country vocal styling. The six-piece band drew the crowd closer to the front of stage as they unleashed their bluesy beats, warming up the afternoon crowd under Perth’s greying skyline.

The risk of rain did not keep the punters away, even though rumours about long lines to get into the popular State Theatre Courtyard proved to be true. A virtually unmoving queue snaked out of the walk way to the courtyard, and those who had come to the festival specifically to see the likes of Perth’s sultry pop songstress Felicity Groom and alt rock champions Eskimo Joe, found they were possibly out of luck if they had not gotten in early enough to secure their place in front of the coveted stage. None the less there were still plenty of incredible acts to see.

Over at the WA Museum stage, Split Seconds, the purveyors of thoughtful pop, produced an energetic performance that did not disappoint with familiar hits such as ‘All You Gotta Do’ and ‘Top Floor’. These Melbourne-based ex pats enticed the crowd with their charming demeanour and catchy melodies.

As the evening light subsided, San Cisco was up next and took the overall vibe of the festival to another level. The fun, jangly, goodtime band San Cisco is reminiscent of 60s surf music mixed with quirky pop harmonies and was a favourite among the younger festival goers as many were singing along, head bobbing and bouncing to the infectious tunes.

Over in the Urban Orchard, The Blackeyed Susans took to the stage in front of a more mature, but none the less, appreciative crowd. The smooth tunes washed over the orchard with a sea-like ambience as Rob Snarski’s rich baritone lulled us into a calm place. There’s something special about a band that sports a double bass and an accordion, which further adds to the reminiscent feeling of fishing villages and timelessness.

It was not a difficult choice to run to the Museum Stage to catch at least some of the urban eloquence of Hip Hop artist Drapht. You couldn’t help but be swept up in the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd as Drapht engaged with the audience in a way that made the mass of revellers behave as one. This reviewer hung around, bouncing with the crowd, long enough to catch Drapht’s hit ‘Jimmy Riccard’ which, as expected, had the crowd moving and waving in unison.

Hightailing it back to the Orchard, I arrived to catch the tail end of old-school psychedelic rockers The Stems. The contrast between the two bands was palpable. In the open skied area of the festival, those who had been attending local gigs for decades were again showing support for this band that had hits in the 80s such as ‘At First Sight’ and ‘Make You Mine’. It was quite a privilege to see a band of this calibre sign off on a day that was engaging, diverse and yes, a little exhausting.

I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say that there was ‘something for everyone’ at the State of the Art Festival as there is possibly more scope for a wider variety of  musical tastes and sensibilities. However, the justifiably satisfied smiles of the many revellers rolling out of the various corners of the Perth Cultural Centre demonstrated that the day was a roaring success.